international

By TIMOTHY APPLEBY
Toronto Globe and Mail
Tuesday, May 22, 2007

All these years later, his name can be found fourth on an alphabetical survivors' scroll from one of Air Canada's deadliest accidents: G.

By MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
Toronto Globe and Mail
Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Back in the summer of 2001, a team of Canadian and U.S. researchers spiked a lake in Northwestern Ontario with traces of synthetic estrogen used in human birth control pills.

By STEPHANIE NOLAN
Toronto Globe and Mail
Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Tony Moll knew there was a problem, a grave problem. To tell him so, he had a ward full of patients who were sicker by the day.

But the gentle doctor, a veteran of 20 years of practice in a rural town in the low hills of KwaZulu-Natal province, never considered that he was looking at a problem that some public-health experts say may be the worst threat to humanity in the past half-century.

When the lab called to tell him just what was wrong with those patients, the news left him "in shivers." The Church of Scotland Hospital in Tugela Ferry, an old mission station of low, graceful stone buildings where Moll is the chief physician, now has the macabre title of "home of XDR TB" -- extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis.

The TB bacillus, a bug that has been pesky but totally treatable since the advent of antibiotics in the 1940s, has suddenly morphed into something virtually incurable.

By KATHERINE HARDING
Toronto Globe and Mail
Friday, May 18, 2007

A Hutterite community in Alberta that believes willfully being photographed is a sin has won the legal right to have a driver's licence without a picture.

The Alberta Court of Appeal this week upheld a lower court decision from last year that the provincial regulation requiring photographs on driver's licences violated the Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony's religious freedoms guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"This is good news. Not being photographed is one of the Ten Commandments," said John Wurz, the head of the Wilson Hutterite colony, which belongs to the brethren that launched the court challenge.

About 30,000 Hutterites live in Canada, and many believe that the Second Commandment, which forbids graven images, prohibits them from willfully having their picture taken. Some even believe it is a sin for that photograph to be seen by another person.

Despite Thursday's legal triumph, Wurz is already concerned that a U.S. requirement for all Canadian citizens to have passports by the end of 2008 to cross the border will land them in the courts again. "It's getting harder to protect our rights with every law they make," he said, adding that it is already difficult for Hutterites to make border crossings with their current identification papers, which don't include photos.

Other provinces with large Hutterite populations, such as Manitoba and Saskatchewan, allow driver's licences without photos for religious reasons.

For several years, Alberta also allowed photo exemptions on religious grounds, but the government changed the rules in 2003, citing security and identify-theft concerns. When the rules changed, 453 sanctioned photo-free Alberta licenses were taken out of circulation, with more then half belonging to members of the Hutterites of Wilson Colony.

While the Hutterite community in southern Alberta fought the legal case, the government issued them special interim driver's licences that don't require photographs. Eighty such licences have been issued, but they are not considered a legal form of identification and contain several security features, including a seal.

Madam Justice Carole Conrad wrote that driving is important to the Hutterites' communal way of life, and the lack of photo-free licenses violated their Charter rights.

This issue of religious rights versus the state's need to identify its citizens emerged in Quebec during the provincial election earlier this year. Just days before the vote, the chief electoral officer reversed his decision to allow Muslim women to vote without lifting their veils to identify themselves. The decision affected only a small number of voters, but sparked a major debate on the topic of accommodating religious minorities.

Most of Canada's Hutterites live in more than 300 communal colonies dotted across the four Western provinces. Computers, fax machines, televisions and newspapers are frowned upon, but allowed at more progressive colonies.

Throughout the centuries, members of the religious group --which traces its beginnings to the Anabaptists, a radical Protestant sect that evolved in Europe in the 1520s -- have been persecuted because of their beliefs in almost every country they moved to, except Canada. Many Hutterites fled here during the First World War after the U.S. government tried to force their members, who are staunch pacifists, to fight in Europe.

By MARK MACKINNON
Toronto Globe and Mail
Thursday, May 17, 2007

The Algerian army is engaged in fierce battles with Islamic militants. A triple suicide-bombing in Algiers last month killed 33 people, damaging the prime minister's office.

You can forgive Zakia Chaoati for thinking the bad old days have returned. "Of course we're afraid. We remember the times when we couldn't go outside, when we couldn't live normally," the 39-year-old employee of a pharmaceutical company said between bites of her panini in one of Algiers's many French-style cafes. "We can't go through that again. That would be folly."

Algerians voted Thursday to choose a new parliament, with anxiety and apathy fighting for places in their hearts. Sixteen years ago, it was legislative elections with early results showing that the Islamic Salvation Front was about to win a sweeping majority that prompted military intervention and a decade-long civil war that left more than 150,000 people dead.

A repeat is almost impossible this time around since the Islamic Salvation Front, known here by its French acronym FIS, is now banned. The parties that are expected to do well are all closely aligned with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is widely credited with bringing a modicum of peace and stability to the country over his eight years in power, an achievement that now seems in some jeopardy.

The feeling of deja vu that nags painfully at many Algerians stems not from nervousness over the election results, but from the cat-and-mouse battles being fought in the east and south of the country. Government troops and helicopter gunships are engaged in combat with the descendants of the 1990s struggle, who ominously rebranded themselves last year as the al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.

The country's Islamists have warned that the precarious situation in the country could swiftly devolve into another Iraq.

More than 200 people have already died this year in the renewed round of political violence.

The triple-suicide bombings of April 11 followed a pair of attacks on buses carrying foreign workers that left five people dead and more than a dozen others, injured. The U.S. embassy in Algiers has since contributed to the rising panic by warning on its Web site that the central post office and the headquarters of the state television station might also be targeted.

Al Qaeda's new offensive is believed to be fueled by a stream of Algerians who are returning from the war in Iraq to pass on skills and tactics to local fighters.

For all its successes in restoring order, Bouteflika's regime is also seen as autocratic and deeply corrupt.

"We're indifferent to the elections, because there are no real elections.

The winner is already known, and the seats have been divided up in advance according to quotas," said Ali Yehi, a 48-year-old retired banker who was among a group of men playing dominoes on a tree-shaded main square.

The other players grunted in agreement.

But officials with the National Liberation Front, the party that dominates Algerian politics, say they're confident that they have the people's trust no matter what the voter participation level.

Mourad Lamoudi, a member of the party's executive committee, said that voters understood that the country was still stabilizing itself, and that unemployment and homelessness would be tackled as investors return to the country and the economy continues to recover from the lost decade of the 1990s.

While the government has made a show of allowing several moderately Islamist parties to take part in the elections, its most bitter opponents remain outside the electoral process.

Those who led the struggle against the government 16 years ago say they have no connections to the recent attacks, though they won't go so far as to condemn them. Kamel Guemazi, a former mayor of Algiers who helped found the FIS 19 years ago, says the government is to blame for the repression and widespread poverty that have driven so many young Muslims to take up arms against the regime.

"We condemn the authorities for putting us in this situation," Guemazi said in an interview at an apartment in an Algiers neighbourhood that was known as an FIS stronghold before the civil war. "It's not a problem of Islam or Islamists. It is a problem of a dictator and a people who are violently oppressed."

Mr. Guemazi said the elections were a fraud since the FIS was not allowed to participate. "They bar us because they know we are still powerful."

By DOUG SAUNDERS
Toronto Globe and Mail
Thursday, May 17, 2007

In the thick pine forests just outside this village in western Bohemia, U.S. military officials are busy clearing trees in the patch of land that has become the flashpoint in tensions between Russia and the United States.

Wednesday, as the team of 38 soldiers and technicians prepared Brdy military base to be turned into a key part of a $3.5 billion anti-missile installation, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Moscow, unsuccessfully trying to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin that the high-tech defense was not a threat to Moscow.

The base, which will feature a high-powered radar installation in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missile launchers in Poland, is described as a defense against Iranian nuclear-missile attacks on the United States. But Putin sees it as a Cold War-style menace, and his generals have threatened to point their nuclear weapons at the Czech Republic if the base is installed.

In the villages around this 80-year-old military base, it all has an alarmingly familiar ring.

"The Americans are telling us that they have to come in alone, and the Russians have warned that their missiles will be pointed at the Czech Republic if this is built; I don't want to be in that position again," said Jan Neoral, a 65-year-old retired electrician in the village of Trokavec who likes to gather wild mushrooms in the area where the high-powered radar will be based.

"I feel a little like the piece of sand caught between two large gears," he said. "It turns us into the biggest target in Europe."

He led a municipal referendum campaign in which Trokavec's 97 residents voted overwhelmingly against the radar installation. On Sunday, the 240 residents of neighboring Skorice voted against it by a margin of 70 percent.

The villagers, like most Czechs, are not at all anti-American. They were liberated from Nazi rule by U.S. troops, and the period of Soviet control over Czechoslovakia has left people here with a permanent distaste for Russia. But the base has raised fears of a return to the Cold War tensions that turned this part of Central Europe into a high-security fortress, constantly prepared for a superpower showdown.

"We were glad when the Russians left," said Skorice Mayor Miroslav Suchy, 46. "Now to have another superpower come in, bring their technology in and start building up tensions, that's something we oppose. We don't want that to happen to us again."

"We're not against the Americans at all," he said. "We don't mind having a foreign base here _ if it's soldiers and tanks, that's fine. What bothers us is the radar, and the danger created by such a target. We don't want to be caught between Washington and Moscow."

These villages have found themselves at the center of almost every major world conflict. Built in 1927 for the Czech army, the base was taken over in the 1940s by occupying Nazi troops. It was used as an artillery range and as a concentration camp. Then, under communist control, it was used by the Warsaw Pact soldiers who seized control of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The villagers have been expelled from their homes on several occasions, and now they are once again fearing for their homes, their health and their safety.

U.S. officials argue that the base will be necessary should Iran develop nuclear weapons and long-distance missiles, a capability that they believe could exist by 2015.

But Putin and his generals say that no imminent security threat exists from Iran, and that the installation is capable of being aimed at Russia, a violation of post-Cold War treaties prohibiting short-range missiles in the region.

In talks between Rice and Putin in Moscow this week, they agreed that they would tone down increasingly bellicose rhetoric, but they failed to break their impasse over the anti-missile installation.

Rice stressed to Putin that Russia will not be allowed any veto or input in the plan.

By MARINA JIMENEZ and LISA PRIEST
Toronto Globe and Mail
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Legal history is being made in an Ontario courtroom this week with the trial of the first Canadian ever to be charged with first-degree murder in an HIV-infection case.

Johnson Aziga, a 50-year-old research analyst with the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney-General, is accused of killing two of his sexual partners by deliberately infecting them with the virus that causes AIDS, and endangering the lives of 11 other women with whom he had unsafe sex.

He is just one of 45 people in Canada who have faced criminal charges for transmitting the human immunodeficiency virus or exposing lovers to it in the past 18 years, according to a Globe and Mail investigation. And these are just the reported cases.

The growing number of cases raises questions about how to protect the public from those who intentionally pass on HIV.

While some AIDS activists oppose criminalizing HIV, saying it dissuades people from getting tested, the courts have made it clear: no person can freely consent to sex with someone who hasn't disclosed their HIV status. "In the last two to three years, we've seen a significant increase in the numbers of cases brought forward," said Richard Elliott, deputy director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. "We've had a mini-explosion of cases." He estimates 40 to 50 since 1989.

Some of the cases involve people who were under public health orders to disclose their HIV status to sexual partners and to use condoms. Although this is not the case with Aziga, it was with Trevis Smith, a former Saskatchewan Roughriders linebacker sentenced this year to 5 1/2 years for deliberately exposing two women to HIV.

It was also the case with Vincent Walkem, whose good looks and charm belied his dangerous ways. It took the efforts of three women, one public health order and a renowned AIDS physician before he was charged in August of 2004 with deliberately exposing people to HIV. "There is a fine line between protecting people's privacy, and protecting people from each other," says Stephanie, Walkem's former girlfriend.

Stephanie, whose real identity is protected by a court order, met Walkem one summer night in 2002 at a birthday party in a Toronto bar. At 26, he was eight years her senior and bore a passing resemblance to Hollywood film star Colin Farrell. "He said he'd been tested (for HIV) and was fine," she said. "So we didn't use condoms."

One day, a few months into their relationship, while Stephanie was waiting for Walkem to finish a shift at a Toronto clothing store, a co-worker approached her: "Did you know he's HIV-positive?" she said. Stephanie said she was "totally shattered and stunned." He later denied knowing he was infected. But there were contradictions in his timeline of events. There was the medication in his bathroom, with the labels ripped off. And his intricate knowledge of a disease he supposedly didn't know he had.

Stephanie found out that she too was infected. She went to see Dr. Philip Berger, chief of the department of family and community medicine at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, who has treated patients of acquired immune deficiency syndrome for more than two decades.

Berger shared Stephanie's suspicion that Walkem had lied with Bruce Clark of Toronto Public Health on Dec. 12, 2002. In January, 2003, Stephanie also called Clark, and that May, she went to police.

Much later, Stephanie learned that Walkem tested positive for HIV in December, 2001 _ at least six months before they met. In February, 2002, according to court records, public health nurses told Walkem he must disclose his status to his sexual partners and avoid unprotected sex.

That was around the time Jessica Whitbread, his girlfriend before Stephanie, told public health authorities in Toronto her concern that Walkem was failing to disclose his HIV status to prospective sexual partners.

. Whitbread said in an interview that when she met Walkem in January, 2001, at a Toronto bar, he claimed he was "clean." However, he later told her he had the virus _ and she then learned he had infected her. "I worried he wasn't disclosing his HIV status to his partners," recalled Whitbread, 26.

In February, 2003, public health issued an order that Walkem not engage in sexual activity without informing his partner of his condition and without wearing a latex condom.

Yet, when Stephanie went to police three months later, they told her they couldn't lay any charges because it wasn't clear when Walkem became infected.

In the spring of 2004, Stephanie discovered that Walkem had started dating yet another woman, Jennifer (who cannot be identified under a court order), a 28-year-old acquaintance of hers.

Unlike Stephanie and Whitbread, Jennifer turned out to be HIV-negative.

In August, 2004, police arrested Walkem at the clothing store, and released his photo to the public. They received a dozen phone calls from past girlfriends, police said. Among them were several women who said Walkem had exposed them to HIV, but who declined to be part of the trial.

Walkem, who was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault endangering life, pleaded guilty and was sentenced this year to four years and eight months in prison. Justice Arthur Gans of the Ontario Supreme Court called his actions "irresponsible, callous, cavalier, outrageous ... and startlingly stupid."

By GRAEME SMITH
Toronto Globe and Mail
Monday, May 14, 2007

Signs of disorder emerged in Taliban ranks as insurgents grappled with the news that Mullah Dadullah, their most powerful field commander, had been killed.

The Taliban initially denied reports that the notorious mullah was dead, then confirmed the killing and vowed revenge. But the question of who should now lead the insurgents into battle was a matter of disagreement between Taliban figures in southern Afghanistan.

Serving in the Taliban leadership council under its reclusive leader, Mullah Omar, has become an increasingly dangerous job. Three of the council's top figures have been killed or captured in the past six months. Dadullah was by far the most important, suspected of masterminding suicide bombings, beheadings, assassinations and other aspects of the Taliban's most bloodthirsty operations.

"Mullah Dadullah ... will most certainly be replaced in time, but the insurgency has received a serious blow," said a NATO statement announcing his death.

One of the few remaining senior insurgents who could lead a military campaign would be Mullah Berader, a former Taliban governor of Herat province. Afghans who have met the tall, thin, long-bearded Berader say he is committed to driving away foreign troops but he is less fanatical than Dadullah was.

Whereas the slain commander was assessed by Western intelligence as a sadist, Berader is described as more educated and good-humored, and perhaps less enthusiastic about the suicide-bombing strategy championed by Dadullah.

A spate of suicide attacks caused a sharp increase in civilians deaths last year and the issue of whether ordinary Afghans are legitimate targets has caused divisions within the Taliban. Such an argument was also visible as some Taliban pushed for a successor more aligned with Mullah Dadullah's views -- perhaps one of his brothers, or a close associate.

The internal politics of the insurgency are murky, as most of the significant players avoid all publicity. Some have never been photographed.

Dadullah was a notable exception, speaking on television and starring in his own video productions. His propaganda films included long scenes in which his fighters cut off the heads of suspected spies.

The insurgent leader's own death was equally public. Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid invited local journalists to his palace Sunday to view Dadullah's body, half-shrouded in a purple cloth, lying on a metal hospital bed. He appeared to have been shot in the head, but was still recognizable. Two bullets struck him in the stomach, the governor said. The shroud was pulled up so journalists could see the characteristic stump of his amputated left leg.

How he died was unclear. Conflicting reports suggest he was killed during fighting in the Sangin or Nad Ali districts of Helmand province. A NATO statement said the operation was led by U.S. forces, with NATO support.

Dadullah's death leaves a void in the Taliban's command structure, but his absence as an inspiration will also be felt. His legendary ruthlessness instilled fear among enemies and allies alike; during previous civil wars, the rumor of his presence on the battlefield was sometimes enough to rout his opponents.

Born in the southern province of Uruzgan, Dadullah belonged to the Kakar tribe, part of the Pashtun ethnic group that dominates southern Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal areas. He fought the Russians in the 1980s, and rose to prominence in the 1990s as a field commander in the Taliban army that swept north and captured most of the country. His leg was blown off by a land mine in 1995.

The U.S. invasion in 2001 trapped him in the northern city of Kunduz, but he narrowly escaped. Afghan authorities believed he sought shelter in Pakistan and demanded his return in 2003. Pakistan officially took action against him in 2005, sentencing him to life in prison, in absentia, for the attempted murder of a parliamentarian.

Last year, he claimed to have 12,000 fighters under his command.

By GAYLE MACDONALD and ALEX DOBROTA
Toronto Globe and Mail
Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Canadian politicians say that changes are imminent to crack down on illegal camcording in Canadian movie theaters, after a major film studio decided to cancel all its preview screenings in Canada, starting with "Ocean's Thirteen" and the next Harry Potter film in July.

Warner Bros. Pictures Canada said it was forced to make the move after watching film piracy of its top movie titles escalate in the past few years. Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution, said Tuesday that illegal camcording across Canada increased 24 percent in 2006 over the previous year.

"There is no indication that this isn't going to continue to grow in 2007," he said. "This country has become a video-piracy hub."

Heritage Canada Minister Bev Oda said in a statement that she and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson are working on ways to deal with the problem.

"We are committed to protect the work of creators and take this issue seriously," the statement said.

Oda did not give details and would not answer questions on the subject.

Two parliamentary committees have recently studied the piracy issue and are set to issue reports over the coming weeks that will urge the government to crack down on pirates operating brazenly in theaters across the country. The content of the reports is confidential so far, but MPs on both committees have spoken in favor of enshrining the offense in the Criminal Code.

"There's the notion that it's a victimless crime," said Liberal MP Roy Cullen, who sits on the House public safety committee, which has studied the issue and is set to issue a report. Cullen said he is also in favor of amending the Criminal Code to include movie piracy.

Canada _ particularly Montreal _ is known as one of the world's worst offenders for piracy, rivalling places such as China, Lebanon and the Philippines. A Motion Picture Association analysis of counterfeit discs in 2005 revealed that close to 75 percent of all films illegally camcorded in Canada were recorded in theaters in and around Montreal, recently identified as the No. 1 city in the world for surreptitious camcording.

Cineplex Entertainment _ in conjunction with the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other movie chains such as Empire and AMC _ have spent the past few years lobbying the federal government to make it a criminal offense to pirate films.

Tuesday, one industry veteran described the Warner Brothers' preview blackout as a shot-over-the-bow designed to shake up federal officials. The piracy issue heated up in January after the Toronto Globe and Mail published an article detailing how Fox's Hollywood-based president of domestic distribution had sent a blistering letter to Ellis Jacob, the Toronto-based chief executive of Cineplex Entertainment, Canada's biggest cinema chain.

Spitting mad after pinpointing Canadian theaters as the source of a steady stream of illegal camcording, Fox threatened to stop sending copies of all its films to Cineplex's 130 movie houses, or push back the Canadian release date.

By SONYA FATAH
Toronto Globe and Mail
Monday, May 07, 2007

The suicide bombing at a Kabul Internet cafe drew attention for a number of reasons: It was one of the first in the Afghan capital after the fall of the Taliban; it struck a spot popular with foreigners; and a U.N. worker was among those who died along with the attacker, Qari Samiullah.

But a little-known fact about that 2005 blast offers a clue into the workings of the insurgents who recruit suicide bombers, and what, apart from religious propaganda, has motivated about 200 men to blow themselves up: In addition to being a deeply religious man, Samiullah was disabled.

His disability didn't come as a surprise. As the insurgency in Afghanistan gathers urgency, the Taliban and other forces are recruiting marginalized and vulnerable groups to carry out suicide attacks while men from their own ranks keep up the ground offensive.

The pool of the disenchanted and hopeless is large in Afghanistan _ people left on the fringes by their economic, physical or mental circumstances _ and there are few services to rehabilitate them after three decades of war.

"Almost 90 percent of (suicide bombers) are people with some form of disability," forensic expert Dr. Yusuf Yadgari said.

Every bomber's body in Kabul-based attacks passes through Yadgari's morgue. He has so far detected such disabilities as muscular dystrophy, amputated toes, blindness, skin diseases and signs of mental illness in the bodies of suicide bombers.

Although no statistics are available, anecdotal evidence increasingly backs up Yadgari's observations. Security experts argue that the Taliban seek out the disaffected, the poor and the marginalized, a group that certainly would include a majority of the disabled. And non-governmental organizations (NGOs) say reports of disabled people being trained as suicide bombers, although unproven, are common.

"One reason why people entertain the idea is there is complete loss of hope in being able to live a normal life," said Firoz Ali Alizada, who lost his legs to a land mine and now uses artificial legs and crutches.

"In a culture like ours, disability and the possibility of being out on the street are equated with great shame. A man who is married and has children is suddenly incapable of supporting and feeding his family. ... He might find it easier to die."

Disabled people are a significant portion of Afghanistan's population, but they live on the margins of its society. One NGO, Handicapped International, identifies nine dimensions of disability, including the ability to care for oneself, depression, epilepsy or seizures, and restrictions on physical movement. About 2.7 percent of the population has very severe disabilities, according to the group.

When a wider segment of disability is included, the percentage skyrockets to 58.9. Even that, observers say, excludes mental disability and disabilities among women.

"It is clear that the Taliban are using financial incentives in many cases to encourage suicide bombers," said Sam Zarifi, Asia Division research director of Human Rights Watch.

"It's not just ideological fervor. It is clear that in a place like Afghanistan where there is a very weak economy, the handicapped, whether physically disabled or mentally challenged, are going to be more vulnerable to that kind of financial incentive."

Money for suicide bombings is offered to families of the bombers, so they can live a better life, a compensation of sorts for the loss of a male breadwinner.

In the early days of Afghan suicide attacks, the Taliban offered $250, sources say. But that number has risen to as high as $10,000. A young man from Kandahar whose attack was foiled by police said he was offered $15,000.

Saifuddin Nezami, director of the Community Center for the Disabled, who is himself disabled, said he can see how recruiting disabled people would be effective:

"In Kabul we have some services for the disabled ... but in the provinces there is nothing _ no services, no vocational training. They are isolated from society and life. This situation causes people to be very disappointed in life, to be depressive and to bear a deep grudge in their hearts toward society and other people."

Suicide attacks in Afghanistan have risen dramatically in recent years, according to Human Rights Watch, which released a report on the subject last month. The tactic is relatively new in the country, which saw only two suicide bombings in 2003. But the numbers grew from six such attacks in 2004, to 21 in 2005, to 136 in 2006. In the first 10 weeks of this year, there were 28.

Many cases of mental illness, mainly depression, can be judged from the condition of the bomber at the time of the attack, Yagadari said. "Their clothes and face are dirty. You can see that they are not interested in life."

It is difficult to track people with mental disabilities because the stigma of those illnesses is worse, if possible, than that attached to physical ailments.

"If you walk down the street ... you will notice that one of every three or four people is talking to himself," Nezami said.

Security analysts say the Taliban and other groups do not recruit suicide bombers from among their elite. "It's true that the Taliban don't use their best and brightest as suicide bombers," said Philip Halton, managing director of Safer Access, which provides expertise for humanitarian aid groups.

"They do look for disaffected members of society, not only those who are disabled but those who are exceedingly poor, and they target those people."

The case of Samiullah, the Internet cafe bomber, is slightly unusual in that he was middle-class.

Hamid Barakzai, a former high-school classmate, recalls bumping into his old friend several years after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Samiullah was still sporting the long beard advocated by the fundamentalist group.

"I asked him, 'Why haven't you cut off your beard? The Taliban are gone,' " Barakzai recalled. "He told me, 'I am al Qaeda. I will die al Qaeda. Next time, I might take some infidel with me to the other world.' I thought he was joking."

Shortly after that conversation, in May 2005, Samiullah blew himself up.